Supreme Court leak galvanises abortion activism
Activists on both sides of the abortion debate in the US have spent months planning for a blockbuster Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade. None of those plans anticipated the particular jolt when a leaked draft opinion signalled a decisive end to the decades-long precedent.
The disclosure has accelerated game plans for the upcoming midterm elections. While Republicans have beenmore effective in rallying supporters around abortion in the past, Democrats believe that the reality of Roe’s seemingly imminent reversal may galvanise their voters to avoid steep losses in November.
Without the national protections articulated by the Supreme Court, abortion would likely become illegal in roughly half of the US’S states – either through bans on the books before Roe was decided in 1973, trigger laws that would go into effect if the landmark decision is overturned, or state constitutional amendments explicitly rejecting protections for the procedure.
Conservative states have passed a slew of anti-abortion laws in recent years in anticipation of the matter being left to individual states.
Protests over the leaked draft opinion have sent people into the streets across the US. About 1000 people gathered in front of the court in Washington, DC yesterday, the vast majority calling for continued federal protection for abortion rights.
US President Joe Biden blasted the decision as ‘‘radical’’.
‘‘It concerns me a great deal that after 50 years, we’re going to decide that a woman doesn’t have the right to choose,’’ Biden said. ‘‘It’s a fundamental shift in American jurisprudence.’’
Biden said he wanted Congress to pass legislation codifying Roe vwade.
The possibility of a ruling ending abortion rights has loomed over the US political landscape for nearly a year, after the Supreme Court agreed to consider a Mississippi law banning the procedure after 15 weeks, which would go against the precedent set by Roe. A sweeping decision seemed even more likely last December, when the conservative majority declined to block a six-week ban in Texas.
Public opinion polls show that while most Americans support some restrictions on abortion, a majority have consistently opposed overturning Roe v Wade for decades.
Liberal and pro-choice groups, including Planned Parenthood, have announced a US$150 million (NZ$232M) midterms campaign, focused on advertisements, candidate training, and phone banking and door knocking in at least nine states.
The contours of the likely new phase of the abortion battles are already taking shape. Democratic campaign committees have released a flurry of digital ads on Facebook to ‘‘protect abortion access.’’ In California, Democratic leaders have announced plans for a ballot initiative to protect the procedure in the state constitution.
Vice-president Kamala Harris is likely to play an expanded role in pushing the Democrats’ political case on protecting abortion rights. In a fiery speech yesterday, Harris accused Republicans of ‘‘trying to weaponise the use of the law against women’’ while arguing that a host of other rights were at risk, including same-sex marriage and the use of contraceptives.